Love decorating in a coastal beach home decor style? Hosting a beach wedding with reception? Looking for beachy-themed party decor and party favors? If you answered YES to any of those questions you’re going to love these 11 coastal and beach designs! You can easily paint and decorate a dozen of them in just one weekend! Plus, you don’t need a ton of art and craft supplies to make them.
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You will need clam shells and oyster shells that you collect from a local beach or purchase from Amazon. You’ll want to wash them with warm soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dishwashing Soap. Dawn does the best job at removing dirt, debris and fishy odors. Rinse with clean water. Let them air dry overnight. They need to be completely dry before you paint and decorate them.
Base coat all of the shells with 1-2 light coats of white paint. You can brush it on with a paint brush or buy white matte finish spray paint. Either way works fine. The base coat is needed so that any colors applied on top…will be vivid! Plus…it just makes them look a whole lot nicer! Let the shells dry for 2-3 hours.
Now is the fun part. Decorating them! I dipped an old toothbrush into acrylic craft paint and splattered paint on top of them. I used colors like dark blue, turquoise, aqua, mint green, denim blue, etc. I only used 2 different colors per shell. It will take about 30-60 minutes for the paint splatter to fully dry.
While the paint is drying…cut out the Beach Theme Rub-On Decals that you want to place on top. I purchased 2 different packs of Rub-On Transfers for Crafts from Amazon in a coastal and beach them. You’ll want to make sure each design fits nicely onto each shell. Rub the transfer onto the seashell following the package directions. Pull off the top sheet and viola….it’s done! You can leave as-is or take metallic paint and trim out the edges of each shell. I used a pack of Tanmit Metallic Paint Markers do the trim. Let them dry for 2-3 hours.
Finishing up – You want to seal-in all of the paint and design work by brushing on 1-2 light coats of Mod Podge Sealer with a Glossy Finish. It goes on white but will dry crystal clear. If you want to make them sparkle…you can sprinkle on some glitter while the Mod Podge is still wet. Let them thoroughly dry overnight.
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